Conrad First: D'Arcy

D’Arcy

Joseph Conrad in Online Icelandic Translations

Julian Meldon D’Arcy, University of Iceland.

It is probably no great surprise that Icelanders, their nation so dependent on its fishing fleet and merchant marine, would be interested in the seafaring novels and stories of the Polish-born British novelist Joseph Conrad. Indeed by the beginning of the 21st century, most of Conrad’s best-known novels dealing with ships or boats have now appeared in Icelandic: Typhoon, The Nigger of the Narcissus, Lord Jim, Nostromo, and Heart of Darkness. Moreover two of his short stories, “The Black Mate” and “The Informer,” have also appeared in Icelandic translations in collections of short fiction (see bibliography for details). Of more interest to readers of this piece, however, is the publication of translations of Conrad’s fiction in Icelandic magazines which are now accessible online through the National and University of Iceland’s Library website (http://timarit.is). These include a novella, Gaspar Ruiz, two short stories, “The Lagoon” and “An Anarchist,” and an episode from Lord Jim entitled “Gúanóeyjan” [Guano Island], all of which appeared in three magazines from 1935 until 1995. There is also available online in Icelandic a brief, introductory article on the life and novels of Conrad written by Alexander McGill in 1925, and it would thus seem natural to begin with this piece in any discussion of Conrad’s serialized fiction in Icelandic magazines accessible online.

“Joseph Conrad”

“Joseph Conrad” was written by Alexander McGill (1891–1973) and its translation published in Icelandic in Eimreiðin 31:3 (July–Sept. 1925), 233–44. The translator is not named. Alexander McGill was of Scottish and Irish descent and a teacher of history in Glasgow secondary schools in the early years of the twentieth century. He was also actively involved in the Scottish Renaissance and was an ardent Celtic nationalist. Impressed by Iceland’s success in gaining Home Rule from Denmark in 1918, he made contact with some Icelanders who helped him with pertinent information for his book The Independence of Iceland: A Parallel for Ireland (Glasgow, 1921). McGill then began to write articles on Iceland in Scottish journals and through his contacts agreed to provide some cultural pieces to be translated for the magazine Eimreiðin, completing four altogether, including an overview of the Scottish Renaissance (“Bókmenntavakning skozka,” 32:1, 1926, 20–35) and introductions to the writers John M. Synge (30:4–5, 1924, 193–215), Gordon Bottomley (37:1, 1927, 62–73), as well as Joseph Conrad (Sigurðsson, 2000, 128–43).
McGill was no great literary critic, as his enthusiastic espousal of the now completely-forgotten Bottomley and the weight he gives to Conrad’s “Lingard” novels illustrate. Nonetheless, his general appraisal of Conrad is competent enough in a basic factual sense. He gives the outlines of Conrad’s life and career as merchant seaman and then novelist, and gives brief synopses of some of his novels, especially Almayer’s Folly, The Outcast of the Islands and The Rescue, as well as Lord Jim and Nostromo. McGill mostly praises Conrad’s presentation of extraordinary and interesting characters and exotic and alien settings in far-flung continents. He also mentions the controversy over Nostromo’s publication in T.P’s Weekly due to its difficult narrative framing. The only example he gives of Conrad’s art is a paragraph from Nostromo in which Linda bewails her loss of the eponymous hero. If not sparkling or original in its presentation, McGill’s effort was a reasonably fair and general introduction to Conrad for an Icelandic audience.
The magazine Eimreiðin [The Steam Engine] had first been founded by Valtýr Guðmundsson (1860–1928) who edited and published it in Copenhagen from 1895 until 1918. Following Iceland’s gaining of Home Rule that year, the journal then moved to Reykjavik and continued to appear, under various editors, until 1975 when it finally ceased publication. Eimreiðin featured stories, poems, articles and reviews on literature, and informative articles on a variety of topical subjects.

Gaspar Ruiz

Gaspar Ruiz (Conrad 1954, 3–70) was translated into Icelandic as Hrikaleg örlög [Dreadful Fate] and serialized in four issues of Eimreiðin between October 1936 and September 1937 as follows: Volume 42:4 (October–November 1936), pp. 432–47, covering Chs. I–V of Conrad’s story, Volume 43:1 (January–March 1937), pp. 96–110, covering Chs. VI–VIII, Volume 43:2 (April–June 1937), pp.217–28, covering Chs. IX and X, and finally Volume 43:3 (July–September 1937), pp. 326–39, covering Chs. XI and XII. The name of the translator is not given. The novella was introduced on the first page of the first issue in 1936 with a brief introduction to Joseph Conrad as being one of the most brilliant novelists of those times, his novels and stories having been published in millions of copies all over the world. His Polish birth is noted, and that he had spent most of his life as a seaman and wrote in the English language. Reference is also made to McGill’s brief biography in an earlier edition of Eimreiðin mentioned above.
The translation itself is for the most part fair and competent though with some errors, a few omissions, and some inconsistent use of punctuation and Conrad’s Spanish. The errors from English are very few and do not have any effect on the actual plot. At the end of Ch. V when Ruiz tells Erminia “apathetically” (Conrad 1954, 21) that he is a wounded man, this is rendered in Icelandic as “rænulaus” [almost unconscious] (Eimreiðin 42:4, 447); when Ruiz and Erminia search the rubble of the house destroyed by the earthquake, they do so under a “serene moon” (Conrad 1954, 38), while in the Icelandic version they are “í björtu tunglskininu” [in bright moonshine] (Eimreiðin 43:1, 110). More frequent changes to the text, though not exactly errors, are shortened, paraphrased, or what might be called “inferred” translations, e.g. “a good many hours” (Conrad 1954, 39) becomes simply “langur tími” [a long time] (Eimreiðin 43:2, 217) and Santierra’s reference to “the state of my domestic and amorous feelings” (Conrad 1954, 41) is rendered bluntly as “ég var ástfanginn” [I was in love] (43:2, 218) in the Icelandic version.
What are more notable however, are the omissions, which are basically the occasional interjections by the audience listening to Santierra’s story. This impatience with Conrad’s narrative framing is clearly systematic, as it occurs in every issue of the translation. In most cases this is just a few lines, as for example near the end of Ch. IV: “The guests of General Santierra unanimously expressed their regret that the man of such great strength and patience had not been saved. ‘He was not saved by my interference,’ said the General” (Conrad 1954, 17). This is cut in the Icelandic version, the story simply continuing with the prisoners being led out for execution (Eimreiðin 42:4, 444). A more sizeable omission, or paraphrase, occurs with the incident of Ruiz’s meeting and negotiating with English officers in Ch. X (Conrad 1954, 49–51), which is trimmed by about 25% of the text, though the main gist of the plot is unharmed (Eimreiðin 43:2, 225). The most inexplicable omission, however, has nothing to do with Conrad’s framing narrative. At the end of Ch. XI, when hearing of the death and defeat of Ruiz, General Robles praises Ruiz’s former exploit in saving him and Santierra during the earthquake, and then exclaims: ‘“Where’s the hero who got the best of him? ha! ha! ha! What killed him, chico?’ ‘His own strength, General,’ I answered.” (Conrad 1954, 65) This poignant and dramatic conclusion is simply, and mystifyingly, dropped (Eimreiðin 43:3, 335).
There are a few irregularities in the translator’s rendering of Conrad’s use of Spanish in Gaspar Ruiz. Throughout the story, Conrad keeps many Spanish titles, phrases, and individual words in italics and their original language as indeed many of them were, and still are, familiar and understandable to English readers, e.g. there are frequent references to “Señor,” “Señores,” “Señora” “Señorita,” “Commandante,” “Teniente,” “bueno,” “hombres,” “Viva la Libertad,” “Por Dios,” “Sangre de Dios,” etc., in the English text. There are occasional discrepancies in that Conrad does not always italicize them, but Spanish words and phrases are used uniformly throughout his text. The Icelandic translator copies this policy almost exactly, using and italicizing the same words and phrases without translating them, though replacing the Spanish “ñ” with the more standard English “n,” hence “Senor,” “Senores,” “Senora,” and “Senorita,” etc. The translator is obliged to change the English definite articles in front of these nouns, however, as the Icelandic definite article is declined and is suffixed to the noun; thus the three references to “the Commandante” in Ch. II of Conrad’s story (Conrad 1954, 9, 11) become “el Commandante” in the Icelandic version (Eimreiðin 42:4, 435, 436, 438), and similarly in Ch. IX “the Moneta” (Conrad 1954, 43) becomes “el Moneta” (Eimreiðin 43:2, 220) and “the señorita” (Conrad 1954, 46) becomes “la senorita” (Eimreiðin 43:2, 222). In one exceptional instance, the translator renders the Spanish noun “señora” (Conrad 1954, 59) as an Icelandic weak feminine noun with attached definite article in the contextually appropriate (in Icelandic) dative case: “senorunni”(Eimreiðin 43:3, 339).
The translator does occasionally render some Spanish words into Icelandic, e.g. “adjutant de Plaza” in Ch. II (Conrad 1954, 10) as “virkisforingi” [commander of the fort] (Eimreiðin 42:4, 438) and thereafter, and “rastrero” and “riata” (Conrad 1954, 57, 61) as “þorpari” [wretch] and “kveikivöndullinn” [fuse-lighter] respectively (Eimreiðin 43:3, 329, 332). There are some errors in these translations, however, possibly caused by Conrad’s misspelling of the Spanish originals. Thus chuso [i.e. chuzo] (Conrad 1954, 64) is translated in the accusative case as “langan hníf” [long knife] (Eimreiðin 43:3, 335) when it should be “spjót” [spear]; indeed earlier in the text the plural “chusos” had been simply left out of the translation (Conrad 1954, 658; Eimreiðin 43:3, 329). Similarly an exclamation which appears twice in Conrad’s text: “Que guape!” (Conrad 1954, 38, 65) is also left out of the Icelandic version, once again because the translator might have been confused by the spelling, which should probably have been: “Que guapo!”
The format and punctuation vary somewhat in the Icelandic version of Conrad’s story, for many of his longer paragraphs are rendered in two or three shorter ones in the Icelandic, or, conversely, many of Conrad’s shorter paragraphs are merged into larger ones in the translation (especially where there have been narrative framing omissions). Nonetheless, this does not have any real effect on the plot or story. More curious is the Icelandic use of quotation marks in dialogue. In the first and fourth issues of the translation (Eimreiðin 42:4, 43:3), the usual Icelandic system (common to many European languages) of reversed inverted commas placed both below as well as above the line („…..“) is applied. In the second and third issues (Eimreiðin 43:1; 43:2), however, the Danish system of reversed chevrons is used (>>…..<<), a system that was still clearly acceptable in Iceland (as a former colony of Denmark) until its full independence in 1944, as other stories and articles in Eimreiðin from this period have similar angled quotation marks. What is odd, though, is that the Icelandic system should be used in the beginning and end of the translation, while the middle section has the Danish one.
Finally there are two aspects of the translation which are slightly different from Conrad’s original text, due to certain unique aspects of Icelandic language and culture. Firstly, whereas Conrad always refers to his eponymous hero as “Gaspar Ruiz” or “Ruiz,” in the translation he is frequently referred to by just his Christian name “Gaspar.” This may seem a little “over-familiar” but is in fact quite natural in an Icelandic context, for Icelanders have hardly any family names, and patronymics are not used as surnames; hence it is not impolite to address anyone by their first name in Iceland. Official titles are only used on the most formal and public of occasions. Secondly, the Icelandic word “jötun” is sometimes used colloquially for “strongman” but more strictly it actually refers to the giants of Old Norse mythology. Hence the “strong man” Gaspar Ruiz has a greater legendary aura about him as a “jötun” in Icelandic than perhaps even Conrad had envisioned.
No further novel or novella by Conrad was serialized in Eimreiðin, but the short stories “An Anarchist” and “The Lagoon” were translated a little later in the magazine Dvöl during the Second World War in 1941 and 1942. Dvöl was a quarterly magazine originally founded and edited by Torfhildur Hólm between 1901 and 1917, ceasing publication on her death in 1918. Hólm has an important place in Icelandic literary history as she was not only the first Icelandic female novelist, but also the first ever Icelandic historical novelist and writer to live solely by the pen. The magazine was revived in 1933 and continued to be published until 1948 under various different editors. Dvöl provided its readers informative and entertaining articles on matters of interest in Iceland as well as original Icelandic fiction and poetry along with translations of a wide variety of foreign fiction and poetry. Authors translated into Icelandic for various editions of Dvöl included e.g., John Galsworthy and Charles Kingsley (England), Balzac (France), Tolstoy and Chekhov (Russia) and Strindberg (Sweden).

“An Anarchist”

Conrad’s “An Anarchist” was translated by Gunnlaugur Pétursson as “Stjórnleysinginn” and appeared in Dvöl 9:2 (April – July 1941), pp. 99–116. Pétursson’s translation is on the whole an accurate and competent version of Conrad’s story, though it does have one or two errors and either poor transcription or slack proof-reading of Conrad’s use of French. There are clearly a couple of words the translator misunderstands; thus the noun and adjective “gullibility” and “gullible” (Conrad 1954, 136) are rather strangely translated as “græðgi” and “gráðugur” [greed and greedy] (Dvöl 9:2, 99). Similarly, Pétursson has not understood the light-heartedness of the word “chaff” (Conrad 1954, 138), interpreting Harry Gee’s banter as “framhleypni” [forwardness] (Dvöl 9:2, 101). There are a couple of other examples, though they do not have a significant effect on the story. As regards Conrad’s use of French, however, the translator (or his proof-reader) was rather careless. Almost all of Conrad’s French expressions and words are rendered in French and italicized as in the original text, but this has been done rather haphazardly. Words are spelled incorrectly: “citoyen” (Conrad 1954, 139) > “cityen” (Dvöl 9:2, 101), “Allez!” > “Alles!” (Dvöl 9:2, 114), or given different accents: “Arrêtez” (Conrad 1954, 141) > “Arrétez” (Dvöl 9:2, 103). In one instance a vital word is missing; Conrad’s “Il ne faut pas beaucoup pour perdre un homme” (Conrad 1954, 144) lacks the important negative “pas” in the transcribed Icelandic version (Dvöl 9:2, 106). Occasionally a French word is actually translated into Icelandic, e.g. “patron” and “estaminet” (Conrad 1954, 148) as “húsbondi” [employer] and “veitingastofa” [café] respectively (Dvöl 9:2, 108), but on the other hand the rank of two men who arrive late from Ile Royale, “sous-officiers” (Conrad 1954, 155) is simply dropped (Dvöl 9:2, 113). For readers familiar with French, these errors must have been slightly irritating, to say the least.

“The Lagoon”

“The Lagoon” was translated by Jón Helgason (1899–1986) as “Síkið” and appeared in Dvöl 10:2 (April–June 1942), pp.144–55. Helgason was a poet, translator and academic and was for many years Professor of Nordic Studies and Director of the Anamagnæan Institute in Copenhagen. Helgason’s translation is a very interesting one in that it has features hitherto unseen in any of the others. There are occasional errors, including a real howler in his translation of “stirred” (Conrad 1947, 194) as “starði” [stared] (148)! What makes the translation different and open to criticism is Helgason’s use of equivalence possibly influenced by his highly academic background and subject of research, by not only translating, but also translocating certain cultural elements in Conrad’s text, rendering Asian descriptions and sensibilities in Nordic terms. Thus the boatmen exclaiming “Allah be praised!” (Conrad 1947, 190) as they moor at Arsat’s house is translated as “Guði sé lof” [Praise be to God] (Dvöl 10:2, 146), which implies they are Christian and not Muslim. More remarkably, when Conrad describes the murmuring of voices as “the humming of insects flying at noonday” (Conrad 1947, 197), Helgason describes the sound as “hávær kliður eins og úr fuglabjargi” [a loud chattering of seabirds on a cliff] (Dvöl 10:2, 151), presumably in an attempt to make the sound more “accessible” to Icelandic readers more familiar with the sounds of a bird cliff by the sea. Similarly when Arsat claims that he and his brother are “freeborn robbers who trusted our arms and the great sea” (Conrad 1947, 198), this is translated as “við erum frjálsbornir víkingar” [we are free-born Vikings] (Dvöl 10:2, 151), once again presenting Malayans in Old Norse cultural terms.
Both of these sentences above are clearly incorrect as translations in linguistic terms, but the question remains as to whether Helgason’s Icelandic “equivalents” are valid as “reader-friendly” terms, for might not the translocation of certain cultural references from southeast Asia to Scandinavia be seen as devaluing the very “exotic” background and detail that is supposedly part of Conrad’s appeal to many readers (cf. McGill’s introduction noted above; McGill 1925)? This can also lead to intriguing uncertainties for the reader and critic: is Helgason’s mistranslation of the Malaysian “sumpitan” [blow-gun for darts] (Conrad 1947, 199) as “kastspjót” [spear for throwing] (Dvöl 10:2, 152) a result of his ignorance of Conrad’s Malaysian reference, or is it yet another example of the translator rendering an alien object to Icelanders as a more comprehensible Viking-age weapon? This is not the place for a theoretical discussion of Helgason’s use of equivalence, but it certainly makes his version of “The Lagoon” the most intriguing Icelandic translation of Conrad.

“Guano Island” [from Lord Jim]

“Gúanóeyjan” [Guano Island] is an episode taken from the novel Lord Jim, the final section of Ch. XIV and a paragraph of Ch. XVI (Conrad 1948, 161–69; 176) and translated into English by Atli Magnússon for the magazine Sjómannadagsblaðið in June 1995, pp. 96–99 (and indeed was part of his later translation of the whole novel published in 1999). This magazine is published annually on Seamen’s Day, a national celebration in Iceland every first weekend in June. The episode relates the plans and fate of an Australian, Chester, and the very old and disreputable Captain Robinson to enroll the disgraced eponymous hero, Jim, in a madcap scheme to exploit a source of guano on the dangerous Walpole Reefs in the Pacific Ocean. Marlow refuses to help them and Jim is thus saved as the two dubious adventurers later perish in their reckless pursuit of wealth. Atli Magnússon (b. 1944) is a well-known and very productive translator from English into Icelandic; apart from best-selling thrillers by Mary Higgins Clark and Patricia Cornwell, he has also translated more literary works by British and American authors, including George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, Scott Fitzgerald and Truman Capote.
Apart from a spelling error in the Icelandic word for month, “mánuði,” (misspelt “máðuði”; Magnússon 1999, 99), Magnússon’s translation from Lord Jim is otherwise excellent. Nonetheless there is one unusual mistranslation and a curious omission. The mistranslation concerns the word “coolies” (Conrad 1948, 166, 167) or local, southeast Asian laborers, which Magnússon surprisingly renders as “negrar” [negroes] (Magnússon 1999, 98), which seems obviously ethnically inaccurate, indeed most modern Icelandic and Icelandic-English dictionaries do not support this translation (Hannesson 1984, 216; Sanders 2009, 293; Árnason 2007, 704). One earlier Icelandic-English dictionary does, however, have an entry for “negri” as “kínverskur í aðra ættina; Chinese Negro; Chigro” (Sigurðsson 1970, 551). Moreover the large official dictionary of Icelandic gives “blökkumaður” [colored person] as one definition of “negri” (Árnason 2007, 704) and this term is itself defined as “negríti [dark-skinned race of southeast Asia], “svertingi,” [black person] “negri” [negro], thus mixing together many dark-skinned ethnicities. Nonetheless “negri” is most frequently used in modern Icelandic to refer persons of African races and so it is odd that Magnússon would choose to use this word, in 1995, as a translation for southeast Asian “coolies.”
The curious omission mentioned above concerns Magnússon’s rendition of Conrad’s two allusions to the Argonauts of Greek mythology when describing Chester and Robinson and their ship. In the first instance, Magnússon renders Conrad’s “curious pair of Argonauts” (Conrad 1948, 169) in “Gúanóeyjan” as “tvo undarlega sæfara sprottna út úr goðsögn” [two extraordinary seafarers appearing from a legend] (Magnússon 1995, 99), and in the second instance he translates “not a vestige of the Argonaut” (Conrad 1948, 176) simply as “engin einustu ummerki um skip og áhöfn” [no sign at all of ship and crew] (Magnússon 1995, 99). The omission of the Greek mythical origin of the Argonaut simile is curious in that in his complete translation of Lord Jim published four years later, Meistari Jim, Magnússon renders these two phrases accurately and verbatim: “tveir sérkennilega Argusarfarar” (Magnússon 1999, 140) and “engin minnstu ummerki um Argusarfara” (Magnússon 1999, 146). Did Magnússon assume that Icelandic fishermen and merchant seamen would be less likely to understand the reference to Greek mythology in the earlier version published in a magazine specially dedicated to them? Or is this just another form of equivalence which he decided to abandon, simply to be more exact and true to Conrad’s original text in his later version? As with the myriad of choices in translation, there are many possibilities but few certainties.

Works Cited

Anon. Trans. Hrikaleg örlög. Gaspar Ruiz by Joseph Conrad. Eimreiðin 42:4 (1 Oct 1936), 432–47 (Chs. I–V); 43:1 (1 Jan 1937), 96–110 (Chs. VI–VIII); 43:2 (1 April 1937), 217–28 (Chs. IX–X); 43:3 (1 July 1937), 326–39 (Chs. XI–XII).

Árnason, Mörður. Ed. Íslensk Orðabók [Dictionary of Icelandic]. Reykjavik, Edda: 2007.

Conrad, Joseph. “An Anarchist.” A Set of Six. Collected Edition of the Works of Joseph Conrad. London: Dent, 1954. 135–61.

Conrad, Joseph. Gaspar Ruiz. A Set of Six. Collected Edition of the Works of Joseph Conrad. London: Dent, 1954. 3–70.

Conrad, Joseph. “The Lagoon.” Almayer’s Folly and Tales of Unrest.Collected Edition of the Works of Joseph Conrad. London: Dent, 1947. 187–204.

Conrad, Joseph. Lord Jim. Collected Edition of the Works of Joseph Conrad. London: Dent, 1948.

Hannesson, Jóhannes. Ed. Ensk-Íslensk Orðabók [English-Icelandic Dictionary]. Reykjavik: Örn & Örlygur, 1984.

Helgason, Jón. Trans. ‘Síkið.’“The Lagoon” by Joseph Conrad. Dvöl 9:2 (April–June 1941): 99–116. Reprinted in Íslenskar smásögur. Vol. IV: Þýðingar [Icelandic Short Stories. Vol. IV: Translations]. Reykjavik: Almenna bókmenntafélagið, 1984. 383–404.

Magnússon, Atli. Trans. ‘Gúanóeyjan.’ From Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad. Sjómannadagsblaðið [Seamen’s Day Magazine] 58 (June 1995): 96–99.

McGill, Alexander. “Joseph Conrad.” Trans. Anon. Eimreiðin 31:3 (July–Sept. 1925): 233–44.

Pétursson, Gunnlaugur. Trans. “Stjórnleysinginn.” “An Anarchist” by Joseph Conrad. Dvöl 10:2 (April–June 1941): 99–116.

Sanders, Christopher. Ed. Concise Icelandic–English Dictionary. Reykjavik: Forlagið, 2009.

Sigurðsson, Arngrímur. Comp. Íslensk–Ensk Orðabók [Icelandic–English Dictionary]. Reykjavik: Prentsmiðjan Leiftur, 1970.

Sigurðsson, Davið Logi. “Samferða í sókn til sjálfstæðis : Alexander McGill (1891–1973) og íslenska, írska og skoska þjóðerniskennd.” [Companions in the search for independence: Alexander McGill and Icelandic, Irish and Scottish Nationalism]. Andvari 125 (2000): 128–43.

Bibliography of Icelandic Translations of Conrad

Available electronically on www.timarit.is:

“An Anarchist”
‘Stjórnleysinginn.’Trans. Gunnlaugur Pétursson. Dvöl 10:2 (April–June 1941): 99–116.

“The Lagoon”
“Síkið.”Trans. Jón Helgason. Dvöl 9:2 (April–June 1941): 144–55. Reprinted in Íslenskar smásögur. Vol. IV: Þýðingar [Icelandic Short Stories. Vol. IV: Translations]. Reykjavik: Almenna bókmenntafélagið, 1984. 383–404.

Gaspar Ruiz
Hrikaleg örlög. Trans. unknown. Eimreiðin 42:4 (1 Oct 1936): 432–47 (Chs. I–V); 43:1 (1 Jan 1937): 96–110 (Chs. VI–VIII); 43:2 (1 April 1937): 217–28 (Chs. IX–X); 43:3 (1 July 1937): 326–39 (Chs. XI–XII).

“Guano Island” [from Lord Jim]
“Gúanóeyjan.” Trans. Atli Magnússon. Sjómannadagsblaðið [Seamen’s Day Magazine] 58 (June 1995): 96–99.

“Joseph Conrad.” (General introduction to his life and work).
Anon. Trans. “Joseph Conrad” by Alexander McGill. Eimreiðin 31:3 (July–Sept. 1925): 233–44.

Other Conrad translations available in print form:

“The Black Mate”
“Svarti stýrimaður.” Trans. Kristmundur Bjarnason. In Sögur frá Bretlandi [Stories from Great Britain]. Ed. Þorsteinn Jónsson. Reykjavik: Bókaútgáfan Menningarsjóðs, 1949. 99–138.

Heart of Darkness
Innstu Myrkur. Trans. Sverrir Hólmarsson. Reykjavik: Mál og Menning, 1992.

“The Informer.”
“Kynlegur Safngripur.” Trans. Sigurður Björgólfsson. In Úrvals Njósnarasögur eftir Heimsfræga Höfunda [Great Spy Stories by World Famous Authors]. Seyðisfjörður: Prentsmiðja Austurlands, 1948. 79–131

“The Lagoon.”
“Síkið.”Trans. Jón Helgason. Íslenskar smásögur. Vol. IV: Þýðingar [Icelandic Short Stories. Vol. IV: Translations]. Reykjavik: Almenna bókmenntafélagið, 1984. 383–404.

Lord Jim
Meistari Jim. Trans. Atli Magnússon. Reykjavik: Mál og Menning, 1999.

The Nigger of the Narcissus
Blámaður um Borð. Trans. Böðvar frá Hnífsdal. Reykjavik: Sjómannaútgáfan 1949.

Nostromo
Nostromo. Trans. Atli Magnússon. Reykjavik: Mál og Menning, 2006.

Typhoon
Hvirfilvindur. Trans. Andrés Kristjánsson. Reykjavik: Sjómannaútgáfan, 1946.

Julian Meldon D’Arcy is Professor of English Literature at the University of Iceland. He has published several articles and two books on Scottish literature, Scottish Skalds and Sagamen: Old Norse Influence on Modern Scottish Literature (Tuckwell Press, 1996) and Subversive Scott: The Waverley Novels and Scottish Nationalism (University of Iceland Press, 2005), and has given papers and published articles on sport literature in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Scandinavia. He was President of the American Sport Literature Association 2010–11. D’Arcy has also translated non-fiction, children’s books, poetry, stories, and novels from Icelandic into English, including: Birds of Iceland by Hjálmar Bárðarson (1986); The Fisherman’s Boy and the Seal by Jóhannes úr Kötlum (1988); The Lodger and Other Stories by Svava Jakobsdóttir(2000); Sideroads by Jónas Thórbjarnason (with Ástráður Eysteinsson, 2011); The Stones Speak by Thórbergur Thórðarson (2012); and The Story of the Blue Planet by Andri Snær Magnason (2012).

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